1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus configured to have a battery unit representing a driving power source in a detachable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190731 discloses an electronic apparatus of this kind in related art, for example. In this patent literature, there is described a battery lock mechanism of locking a battery and releasing the lock in a state where the battery representing a driving power source of an electronic apparatus is mounted on the electronic apparatus. The battery lock mechanism of the electronic apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190731 includes a battery mounting portion, a lock member, and a lock release member. The battery mounting portion is provided on the rear surface side of the electronic apparatus, and the battery is detachably mounted thereon. The lock member is disposed along a rear surface side of the battery mounting portion, and a part of the lock member projects to a battery mounting surface of the battery mounting portion and engages with the battery mounted on the battery mounting portion to lock the battery. The lock release member is disposed slidably in a direction orthogonal to the battery mounting surface of the battery mounting portion and engages with the lock member to release the lock of the battery. In this battery lock mechanism, the lock member and the lock release member are disposed in L-shape.
According to the above-described electronic apparatus, the battery lock mechanism can be disposed in a marginal space between an external case and an inner structure portion in the electronic apparatus, thereby the electronic apparatus being small-sized (paragraph [0005] of the specification).
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190929 discloses another example of an electronic apparatus of this kind in related art, for example. In this patent literature, there is described a battery unit and an electronic apparatus operated by the battery unit. The electronic apparatus described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190929 includes a battery storing chamber in which the battery unit is stored. The battery unit includes a case having a width, thickness and length, a rechargeable battery portion provided inside the case, and a battery-side terminal provided on a surface of the case and connected to the rechargeable battery portion. The battery storing chamber has a width corresponding to the width of the case, a height corresponding to the thickness of the case, and a depth corresponding to the length of the case. Further, the battery storing chamber includes a storing-chamber-side terminal that contacts with the battery-side terminal in a state where the battery unit is inserted with a direction of the length thereof being parallel with a direction of the depth. Guide grooves extending in the length direction are provided at both side positions in the width direction of the case of the battery unit. The battery storing chamber is provided with projections that engage with the guide grooves and determine a position of the case in the thickness direction, that is, in the height direction in this battery storing chamber.
According to the electronic apparatus of such configuration, two or more kinds of battery units each having a different height of a case, more specifically, each having different capacity, can be stored in the battery storing chamber (paragraph [0005] of the specification).
However, in the case of the battery lock mechanism of the electronic apparatus (first related-art example) described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190731, the battery mounting portion provided on the rear surface side of the electronic apparatus communicates with the rear surface side and lower surface side. Therefore, the battery can be attached to the battery mounting portion by inserting the battery upward or obliquely upward, and the battery can be detached from that portion by pulling out the battery downward or obliquely downward. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a battery mounting structure of the electronic apparatus according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190731.
A battery mounting portion 101 is formed in the lower part of the rear surface of an electronic apparatus 100 as a concave portion having approximately the same size corresponding to a size of a battery 300. In a rear surface 100a of the electronic apparatus 100 that is a bottom surface of the battery mounting portion 101, there are provided two engagement claws in two rows in a longitudinal direction, in other words, four engagement claws 102 in total, each having a claw portion projecting downward to engage and hold the battery 300 by engaging with an engagement convex portion 301 of the battery 300. Further, a stopper member 103 is provided on a bottom surface 100b of the electronic apparatus 100 so that the battery 300 mounted on the battery mounting portion 101 is prevented from dropping off. The stopper member 103 can slide in an anterior-posterior direction of the electronic apparatus 100 and can project from a rear surface thereof by a predetermined length, and the projected portion is positioned at the lower part of the battery 300 in such projected state so that the battery 300 is prevented from dropping off downward.
Accordingly, not only the stopper member 103 and mechanism to slide the stopper member 103 may be needed in the first example of related art, but also the stopper 103 may be operated by mistake since the stopper member 103 is exposed to the bottom surface 100b of the electronic apparatus 100. In such case, there is a possibility that the battery 300 falls off by dropping out of the battery mounting portion 101 due to its own weight. In addition, a fixing screw portion for a tripod is generally provided in the bottom surface 100b of the electronic apparatus 100, and so there is such a problem that operation of slidably moving the stopper member 103 may be impossible or may be extremely difficult in many cases in the electronic apparatus 100 in the state of the tripod being attached.
Also, in the case of the electronic apparatus (second related-art example) which is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190929, the electronic apparatus is configured such that a battery storing chamber provided on the rear surface side of the electronic apparatus is open only on the rear surface side. The battery can be attached by inserting the same into the battery storing chamber from a lateral direction, and similarly the battery can be detached by pulling out the battery in the lateral direction. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a battery mounting structure of the electronic apparatus according to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-190929.
A battery storing chamber 111 is formed in a middle part on the rear surface of an electronic apparatus 110 as a concave portion having a slightly larger length than that of the battery 300. The battery storing chamber 111 is formed such that a length in the widthwise direction is set to the length corresponding to a width of the battery 300, but a length in the lengthwise direction is set slightly longer than the length of the battery 300. Further, in a rear surface 110a of the electronic apparatus 110 that is a bottom surface of the battery storing chamber 111, there are provided two engagement claws in two rows in a longitudinal direction, in other words, four engagement claws 112 in total, each having a claw portion projecting upward to engage and hold the battery 300.
The battery 300 is attached to and detached from the battery storing chamber 111 as follows, for example. First, the battery 300 is fit into the upper part of the battery storing chamber 111 by moving the battery 300 from the lateral direction to be mounted. Next, the battery 300 is slid downward by a distance S in the battery storing chamber 111 such that four engagement convex portions 301 of the battery 300 are engaged with the four engagement claws 112 in the battery storing chamber 111. Accordingly, the battery 300 is engaged and held in the lower part of the battery storing chamber 111 with the four engagement claws 112 being engaged with engagement convex portions 301, thereby the battery 300 being prevented from dropping off. On the other hand, the battery 300 is detached with operation opposite to that of attaching the battery 300, and the battery 300 can be detached easily by pulling out the battery 300 in the lateral direction after sliding the battery 300 upward and releasing the engagement between the four engagement claws 112 and engagement convex portions 301.
However, in the case of the second related-art example, it is necessary to slide the battery 300 upward and downward by the distance S within the battery storing chamber 111. Accordingly, the length of the battery storing chamber 111 becomes longer by the sliding mount of the battery 300, and there has been such a problem that the whole electronic apparatus 110 becomes larger since a height of the electronic apparatus becomes higher as much as the length of the battery storing chamber 111 becomes longer.